Be Careful of What You Wish For
by BerryBlast99
Summary: Two friends who wind up in the world of one piece. One completely head over heels about it. The other just looking for the quickest way home.
1. Prologue: Down the rabbit hole

_Hello! BerryBlast99 here! So this is my first fanfic on the site and also one of my first fanfics I've written. I cannot tell you how LONG it took to write this. I have rewritten it, had it all nearly lost thanks to an evil virus, and had almost thought not to put it up at all. but it's almost two in the morning and I'm tired. And what does a person do when they are tired and on the internet? Do idiotic mistakes they wouldn't normally do! But I really do hope you all enjoy this story and maybe get a good laugh. _

_(Also keep in mind I had started writing this when the whole OC in one piece was newish. but then again I like these kind of stories anyway so :P)_

_Now then on to the story!_

_... Oh yeah. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything, this is purely a fan based fiction. the only thing I own are My OC's otherwise I got nothing. _

_Okay now, really, onto the story!_

* * *

_We all wish for something adventurous to happen in our lives_

_But do we have any idea what we are getting ourselves into?_

_When we wish for something_

_Always be careful for what you wish for…_

Prologue

"Rita! Do you need any help?" A women's voice called from somewhere in the old looking house.

"No thanks Mom! I got it!" A young girl answered as she continued her way up the stairs, holding a large cardboard box. The girl, Rita, was actually having a hard time balancing on the steep steps, but she didn't want to bother her already busy parents.

"Sides I can handle a box- Whoa! Ah!" Rita grumbled but then started to lose her balance, wobbling on one leg. She could feel a surge of panic grip her chest, and she swung her other leg forward hoping to find the next step. She quickly found it and continued to climb up and finally got to the top.

"…See! Totally handled." She smiled and went into her new room, to unpack.

Her family had just moved into an old house that sat in the middle of a forest. Her parents thought it would be nicer to live out there then the neighborhood they use to live in. It was starting to get bad with several robberies and other such things. Rita just wished it was a bit closer so her friends could come visit, but it was a two hour drive away now.

She sighed and continued to put away clothes and other things of the like.

'_I suppose I could email them every day and chat with them on face book. Ash would hate her slow connection even more though… Oh my god what if this place doesn't have Internet?_' Rita thought horrified by the very idea of not being able to get online. She was very addicted to it and her longest record of not being on it since the day she learned of this wondrous invention, was two weeks.

She sat in the corner of her new room and just stared at the wall, letting the possibility sink in. This was about the time her father entered the room.

"Here you go Kiddo, more box… Are you okay?" He asked her. Now Rita could tell him her real reason why she was having a little mental breakdown and listen to him rant that she needed to spend less time on it anyway or go a safer route and…

"So many boxes! Why on earth do I have so many?" She complained. Which isn't a lie, why _did_ she have so many boxes? Her Father rolled his eyes and set the boxes down next to the others.

"Get over it you drama queen. Now listen I'm heading off to work and your mother is going to get groceries later, got it?" He asked as started out the door.

Rita sighed and realized he was right and she was probably blowing things out of proportion again.

"Yeah, I got it. Love ya dad!" She called out to her father's retreating back.

"Yeah, yeah love you too." And then he was gone. She went back to her unpacking and it was rather uneventful until she pulled out the last of her things, which happen to be gifts. Looking at the two items, she grinned and hugged them close remembering who she got them from.

_*Flashback* _

"_I'm going to miss you so m-much!" Hailey sobbed wrapping her arms around Rita. She was in a rather poor state with tears falling down her cheeks and her body trembling. _

"_ME TOO!" Rita wasn't any better. In fact, You could say she was worse because Hailey was squeezing her way to tight._

"_Oh, stop acting like such babies." Ash grumbled standing next to them with her arms crossed and a scowl in place. _

_Hailey and Ash have been Rita's friends since they were very young. She could remember the day she met Ash quite vividly. She was in kindergarten and a boy was picking on her. She was going to cry when Ash came to her defense and beat up the bully. And continued to when ever he came to close them. Though Ash didn't have friends herself and wasn't that interested in having one, that didn't stop Rita. Eventually, after months of following, talking, and generally being annoying, she managed to wedge herself into Ash's heart and they have been friends ever since. _

_Rita met Hailey the next year after. Hailey was new to the school and the teacher asked Rita to show her around. They became friends instantly, however Ash was jealous of Hailey for a while. They eventually settled there differences though and the three have been tight knitted friends ever since. _

"_I-I want you to have these, and think of me when you play them okay?" Hailey sniffed and pulled away to hand over a box with a little bow taped to it. _

_Rita blinked and took the package carefully. Opening it she saw Hailey's favorite games of all time, the Jak and Daxter series. All of them. Rita grinned happily and hugged her in thanks. It would be impossible not to think of her when playing them anyway. Hailey had posters, plushies, fanart, and nearly everything associated with the franchise. _

"_Thank you! I'll play them all summer!" Rita thanked. She then felt a tapping on her shoulder, so she spun around on her heels to face a rather, nervous looking Ash. Instead of saying anything, she shoved a gift at Rita's chest and waited for her reaction. _

_Rita blinked and looked down at it and saw it was the latest issue of her favorite manga "One Piece"._

_Rita was speechless. Ash never took an interest in anime or manga, like Hailey and She. Whenever Rita started to talk excitedly about it, Ash tended to tune her out or play whatever rock song was on her I-pod. The fact she remembered the name and took the time to hunt it down, left a warm feeling in Rita's chest. _

"_I… I don't know what to say. Thank you!" Rita smiled softly at her long time friend. _

"_Tch, whatever." Ash muttered, looking away. However, Rita and Hailey could see the light blush dusting across her cheeks. _

"_Aww, Come here!" Rita grinned happily and proceeded to hug her grumpy friend. _

"_Oi! Get off!" Ash growled as she struggled to get free. Hailey giggled and hugged them as well, with a small cry of 'group hug'. _

"_Why are _you _hugging me!?" Ash screamed at Hailey. _

_*End flashback*_

Rita smiled softly at the memory of the day before and placed Hailey's gift on the desk of her room. Then she flopped on to her bed and just relaxed for awhile. Unpacking was hard work! She began to read the new issue of 'One Piece' She still had in her hand.

'_Man I wish could join the straw-hat crew! It would be amazing! It would be sweet if my friends could come too, Then we could help the crew and become strong and stuff…' _Rita thought to herself, then she sighed when she realized that could never happen. '_Still, it's fun to imagine. Maybe we could make a tree house around here and pretend it's Skypiea. I don't care what they say, you're never to old to play pretend. That and a tree house is cool regardless if you pretend it's something else_.'

"Hey sunshine! Wow, your room looks very nice!" Rita's mother broke her daughter out of her thoughts.

"Thanks mom!" Rita closed her book and sat up, stretching her back.

"What were you reading?" She asked curiously.

"One Piece. The crew just went on this creepy ship and there's a talking skeleton on it! And, get this, he has an afro!" Rita gushed excitedly, waving her arms around as she talked.

"That's… weird." Her mother said looking at her child with a look that said, 'what does she see in that thing?'

"It's cool." Rita pouted. She then heard someone cough from behind her mother and blinked wondering who was there.

"Oh! Sorry! Rita your friends are here." Her mother said happily as she moved so her friends could enter.

"Hi Rita! Did you miss us?" Hailey asked, running into the room and jumped on Rita's bed barely missing her.

"Hey." Ash greeted calmly walking in.

"Hey guys! What are you doing here? Not that I'm complaining." Rita asked.

"Well, seeing as it's summer, we decided that a few more friendly faces would help you settle in." Hailey explained, but then shuddered, "Ash drove us. I thought I was going to die a few times there."

"Oi! What's that supposed to mean? We got here didn't we?" Ash growled.

Rita winced, knowing what it was like to have Ash drive the car. Honestly, how did she get a driver's license in the first place? She didn't think she wanted to know the answer.

"Rita, why don't you show them around? I'm going to get the groceries, call if you need anything!" and with that her mother left.

"So, what do you want to do?" Hailey asked. Pushing herself off the bed, Rita grinned and grabbed her friend's wrist.

"We're going exploring!" She yelled happily and went out to the hall, grabbing Ash's wrist along the way.

"It's just an old house…" Ash muttered but allowed Rita to pull her along. They explored through out the house finding an old basement, and a small attic filled with spiders, that made the girls shriek in terror (though Ash will never admit it), and now they were outside staring at the forest.

"…We're going in there, aren't we?" Ash asked.

"Yep!" Rita grinned. Ash sighed and hanged her head. Ash had a rather bad feeling in her gut about this. Once Rita had something in her head, however, there wasn't much you could do to stop her.

'_Best to just get this over with…' _Ash thought to herself and began to walk towards the forest, Rita following close behind.

"M-maybe we could just go play a game- Hey wait for me!" Hailey called when she realized she was being left behind.

As they traveled through the forest Rita let her thoughts wonder. _'I hope that there's a lake or stream near by. We could get a boat and pretend it's the going merry! …I also hope Hailey hasn't gotten any ticks on her.'_

Hailey was wearing nothing more then a white skirt, a t-shirt with a picture of a whale on it, and sandals. Not the best things to wear out in the forest.

While we're on the subject of description, Hailey was a short, curvy, sixteen year old girl. She had a lovely shade of caramel skin, dark brown hair, and light emerald colored eyes.

Ash on the other hand was very tall and skinny. Her pale white skin stood out in the dark brown and greens of the forest. Her blond hair was messily tied up in a ponytail and her bangs were mostly brushed to the right side of her face. Ash's eyes were a dark brown. So dark you'd think they were black. She wore a bright red sweatshirt, simple blue jeans, and black sneakers.

Rita, herself, had an average height with orange hair, cut just above her shoulders, with blue eyes, wearing a black t-shirt with a picture of the planet, baggy blue jeans, and brown sneakers.

'_How long have we been out here anyway?'_ Rita wondered to myself. It felt like it might have been an hour. In that time she had found a perfect tree for the tree house, but no luck with water.

Ash seemed to think they had been out here to long as well because she suggested they turn back.

"Yeah, your right let's g-Hey! What's that over there?" Rita asked. Over in the distance there seemed to be something… glowing.

"Don't know…" Hailey muttered.

"Hmm well, let's go check it out!" Rita exclaimed and dashed towards the light.

"Rita! Wait! Arrg that girl needs to learn to control her curiosity," Ash yelled after Rita but quickly realized she wasn't listening. "Come on, let's get to her before she does something stupid."

"Right!" Hailey agreed and the two went after Rita.

"Whoa… GUYS CHECK THIS OUT!" Rita called to them when they got closer. She was looking down at a large pit filled with white blue, glowing… slime is was the best word for it.

"What _is_ this?" She asked and leaned forward to get a better look.

"I… have no idea. But you probably shouldn't touch it. It might be poisonous or something." Ash warned causing Hailey to immediately take a few steps back. And she was probably right, though one has to wonder what this stuff was doing in the middle of a forest.

"Yeah okay we should head back any-WAY!" Rita yelled ,for you see, as she was leaning back to get away one of the rocks came loose making her fall down the pit.

"AHHH WHY?" Rita screamed before landing in the slime.

"RITA!" Ash and Hailey screamed, frightened for their friend.

In the slime, Rita was having a rough time. She couldn't tell which way was up or down, and dared not open her eyes incase the slime _was_ poisonous. The slime itself felt like thick water, and it was cold. Really cold. It so cold you would think you were in Antarctica, at night, in the water, naked… Okay maybe not _that _cold but pretty cold. It made her body numb, making it harder to swim. And it got worse, as the slime was starting to irritate her skin. At first it was a tingling feeling then it started to feel like hundreds of needles poking at her skin.

And soon she was in a great amount of pain, it was like the slime was squeezing her body and pulling her limbs. She tried hard not to scream so the slime wouldn't get in her mouth and lose the air in her lungs, but soon it became to much.

'_Am… I going to die? It hurts! What if I never see mom or dad again? Ash, Hailey… I don't even get to say goodbye! This really blows…' _and with that last thought, Rita fell unconscious.

Meanwhile…

"RITA!" Hailey and Ash screamed as their friend fell.

"Ash what do we do? What do we do? WHAT DO WE DO!?" Hailey asked panicking, and started to pull on some of her hair in a nervous habit.

"Calm down! Rita knows how to swim, just… give her minute." Ash's thought were racing, but she took deep breath's to calm herself.

'_Why hasn't she come up yet? She's a great swimmer, heck she taught _me_ to swim!' _Ash thought.

"Come on Rita…" Ash whispered to herself. It was then that it hit her. Rita wasn't going to come back up.

"Damn it. Hailey go to the house and get help! I'm going in!" Ash ordered and got ready to jump.

"WHAT!? But Ash! I-"

"I said GO!" Ash interrupted and dived. She quickly realized why Rita was having a hard time.

'_Jeeze, it's freezing in here! I can barely move!'_ Ash thought as she stretched an arm in front of her blindly searching for her friend. _'How deep is this pit anyway?' _

Ash was beginning lose hope when her brushed against something solid and warm.

'_Gotcha!' _Ash thought bringing Rita close before, she too, lost consciousness.

* * *

And that is the end of the prologue! I hope you liked it so far. I know not much happened in this chapter except falling into a pit of glowing slime that will no doubt lead them to the greatest events of their lives, but the fun stuff will be in the first chapter! ^^


	2. Chapter 1: The dreaded purple suit

Hello Again! I couldn't just leave you guys with the Prologue! So here is Chapter one! I really hope you guys enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OC's this is a Fan based fiction.

with that out of the way onwards to the story!

* * *

Chapter one

Rita groaned as her mind began to wake up, not wanting to get up herself.

'_No… five more minutes!… wait when did I fall asleep? The last thing I remember…!'_

Rita's eyes shot open as she sat up, now fully awake.

"That's right! I fell into that slime and, oh god that hurt! I blacked out." Rita exclaimed. She felt much better now though, only a bit sore.

'_But what _was_ it? And where are Ash and Hailey?'_ Rita thought and finally looked around. She was… in an ally?

'_How did I end up in an ally? And… why is everything so big?' _Rita wondered. The buildings were abnormally huge, and she could see an old trash can down at the end. The trash can could easily be twice her height, maybe even three times it!

'_Okay this is really, _really_ weird._' Rita thought. It was then that she realized that what she was sitting on didn't feel hard like the ground, but soft, warm, and… moving?

"What the?" Rita asked and looked down. Only to give a startled yelp. She was sitting on a person! And if that wasn't startling enough, this person was massive! Not as in fat, but in scale. Like a giant!

'_Maybe I'm dreaming?…'_ Rita thought to herself. She crawled up the person to see who they might be. When she could see the person's face clearly, she could only stare in shock.

"Ash!?" Rita yelled in confusion. "How did you get so… big?"

'_Or maybe I'm just really small?' S_he pondered.

Rita noticed that Ash was still asleep. So she shook her shoulder trying to coax her awake, but it wasn't working.

'_What if she won't wake up!?' _Worry was beginning to sink in. So Rita then took both shoulders as best she could and tried to shake her friend up.

"Ash, come on! Wake up, I'm really, _really_ sorry for running off! Just, please, GET UP!" Rita begged. It seemed to do the trick because Ash gave a low groan.

'_YES! SHE'S ALIVE!' _Rita sighed in huge relief. Ash slowly blinked her eyes open.

"Where…?" She began to ask and she propped herself up on her elbows and looked down, when she realized there was a very small weight on her chest.

"…What in the he-"

"Oh Ash, I'm so glad you're ok-" Rita interrupted, only for her, herself to be interrupted.

"AHHHH! IT TALKS!?" Ash screamed and leapt to her feet, causing Rita to fall to the ground rather painfully.

"Ow! Ash that hurt! And yes I talk! Jeeze!" Rita grumbled and pushed herself up.

"Oh, well, excuse me for freaking out at-wait. How… did you know my name?" Ash asked, getting more and more freaked out.

"Because we've been friends since kindergarten? Ash, don't you recognize me? I mean I know I'm shorter now, but… hmm maybe being shorter makes you look a lot different?" Rita trailed off in her thoughts. Ash looked at her in horror then, in a blink of an eye, rage filled her face.

"HOW THE HELL WAS _I _SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT? Have you even _looked _at yourself?" Ash glared. She… did have a point.

Rita looked down at herself , expecting to see her t-shirt and jeans, only to see orange. Lots and lots of orange.

"…What?" Rita flatly not believing what she was seeing.

'…_Okay! It's official. I'm dreaming!' _Rita thought to herself as she looked at her body in horrified fascination.

Her entire body was covered in orange fur, with yellow on her stomach, toes, and her mouth. Then she had a reddish- orange stripes on her legs and her fingers were fully colored in said color.

'_Wait do have a..?' _She looked behind her to see she did, in fact, have a tail.

"…COOL!" Rita grinned. She always wanted to have a tail as a kid. And it had stripes too, it must have went up to the back of her neck, Rita guessed. The tip was also the reddish color and it reminded her of an otter tail.

'_If this is a dream, then I might as well go along with it and have fun..' _Rita reasoned in her mind.

"Cool? _Cool!? _What on earth could be cool about being a foot tall weasel?" Ash growled. Rita thought about it for a second.

"…I have a tail, and I'm super cute?" Rita tried. Ash slapped a hand to her face in frustration. Rita did a double take at looking at her friend, though.

"What happened to your ears?" Rita asked tilting her head. Ash, apparently, changed as well. Her ears were now very, very long. And her hair changed a bit too. Instead of normal blond, it was now a pikachu yellow with red tips. It also looked a bit spikier, like a cartoon.

"What?" Ash raised a brow in confusion, "What do you mean 'what happened' to my ears?"

"Um, well…" Rita trailed off awkwardly, not for sure how to bring it up. Guess, she didn't have to because Ash's hand raised up to her ear. Her eyes grew in horror as she felt her ears, that were now long and pointed like an elf or fairy.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" She screamed and grabbed Rita by the scruff of her neck, then shook her like a rag doll.

'_Make the spinning stop!' _Rita thought, getting dizzy.

Ash then sighed and let Rita go, running a hand through her hair.

'_Wish granted I guess…' _Rita thought as she rubbed her sore back side.

"Huh?" Rita blinked in surprise when Ash picked her up much more genteelly.

"Well, we're here so we might as well figure out where _here_ is." Ash sighed and walked towards the end of the ally, Rita under her arm like a foot ball.

At the end of the ally the two girls stuck there heads out and looked from one side to the other. They were in a town near the ocean, judging from the fish smell and seagulls flying around, and people were walking around doing their daily routine. Ash was very disappointed to see they all had normal ears.

'_Great I have fairy ears and a talking, orange weasel under my arm, who use to be a sixteen year old girl. This is just so… surreal.' _Ash thought with a pout, never noticing her ears moved down just slightly with her emotions.

While Ash was lost in her thoughts, Rita was looking around brows scrunched in confusion.

'_Why does this place feel… familiar?' _Rita thought and turned her head towards the left to see something that shocked her. '_Is… Is that the marine base from One piece?' _

The building looked just like the marine base from the first few episodes of the anime, though rather far away.

'_It looks just like it! Gee I hope Morgan's out of there. If that's where my dream is set anyway… then again maybe it's something entirely different. Either way, it's something to go on.'_

"Hey Ash you see that really big, weird looking, blue building over there?" Rita asked pointing towards the building in question.

"Yeeeeaaaaah?" Ash stretched the word out in question.

"Can we go over there? It… looks familiar."

"How can anything here be familiar to you?" She growled, but started walking there all the same.

'_Man this is getting a bit uncomfortable…' _Rita thought after a while. Her stomach was feeling a bit sore, and she didn't like the feeling of her limbs flopping about.

"Hey Ash? Can I climb up to your shoulder? My gut is starting to hurt…"

"Hm? Oh yeah, sure." Ash helped Rita to her shoulder "Better?"

"Ah… much better! The view is much nicer up here!" Rita sighed happily, closing her eye's as the breeze blew across them.

"Yeah, yeah…" Ash smiled and continued walking. However she began to notice that people were staring at them. She even noticed that a few were pointing at them and whispering. She glared at those people.

_'Jeeze what a way to kill a mood.' _Ash thought, eyebrow twitching in irritation _'I hope that building we're heading to is helpful…'_

They were almost there when they heard terrified screams coming from a little tavern they were about to pass. They looked at each other and then Ash bolted inside.

Inside caused the girls to stop in surprise. There were the terrified people of course, but there was also men in white and blue uniforms with the word 'MARINE' on them doing nothing as… A wolf was about to attack a girl!?

'_Why are they just standing there!? That's a _kid_! Dude HELP her!' _Ash thought frantically, not sure how to intervene. Rita, on the other hand, took a more direct approach.

"AROOOO!" The wolf howled in pain. It turned it's head with tears in it's eyes to see what was hurting it so bad. On it's tail, with teeth latched on tight, was Rita.

'_Ew… He tastes nasty!' _Rita thought. The Wolf growled and opened it's jaw.

'_Holy Crap! He has a big mouth!' _Rita thought. It didn't help that the beast had long, yellowing fangs that could pierce through her body like a tuna sandwich. Rita began to clench her jaw tighter in fear as the wolf began running in circles trying to get her.

"Rita! What are you doing you idiot!" Ash yelled in fear once she realized what happened.

'_It may have saved the girl, but _he's _a wolf and _she's_ a weasel. Do the math!' _Ash thought and was about to reach out for Rita when a finger was waved in her face.

"HEY YOU! HOW DARE YOUR RAT ATTACK MY DOGGIE! IF YOU DON'T CALL IT OFF RIGHT NOW, I'LL TELL MY DADDY AND HAVE YOU EXECUTED!" A man in purple clothing shrieked at her. Ash glared at the finger and slapped it away from her face.

"I don't _care_ who your dad is! You can't 'execute' me for this! You're the one letting your pet _wolf_ attack a little girl!" Ash yelled back.

"…How DARE you! Do you even know WHO _I_ AM?" He was shocked at someone standing up to him for second but quickly went back to screaming.

"You're a bully I can tell you that much." Ash growled. The man, no, _child_ in the purple suit growled back.

While the two were bickering Rita was trying her best to not get eaten. The girl had ran to her mother by now, so she was safe thankfully.

'_But what about me!?' _Rita thought miserably with little anime tears streaking down her face. The wolf would snap it's jaws at her own tail, so she had to constantly curl her body so he couldn't reach it. It soon became to close for comfort.

'_That's it I'm out of here!' _Rita thought as she let go of the tail and leapt before the wolf could do anything. Only to land in a lap of some man sitting at the counter.

And Rita had to do a double take when she saw who that man was.

'_Is… Is that Zoro!? Oh! I must be dreaming about when he got arrested… Should I help him somehow not get arrested?…Nah, I better make sure he _get's_ arrested because otherwise there's no reason for him to stay here and Luffy wouldn't meet him and the series would turn to CHAOS!' _Rita thought franticly.

"Huh?" Zoro questioned and looked down to see Rita. She grinned sheepishly and waved a bit before the wolf leapt at them.

"RITA!" Ash screamed. She had looked back just in time to see the wolf leap.

'_I was so busy with that purple brat that I didn't get Rita!' _Ash started forward but then there was a 'swish' sound and the wolf fell down to the ground. It was dead.

"Wait… What?" Was all Ash could say. Looking towards the man that Rita had landed on she could see he had a sword in his hand.

'_That explains the blood soaked canine then. How did he get a real sword anyway?… Wait where's Rita?' _Ash thought when she didn't see orange. She heard a groan though and her gaze fell to the floor. _'Oh… there she is.'_ Rita had fallen to the floor and was currently rubbing her sore back.

"Y-YOU! HOW DARE YOU KILL MY DOGGIE!" The Purple man shrieked.

'_Jeeze stop screaming…' _Ash thought wanting to cover her ears so she didn't have to hear this guy anymore.

"W-Wait a minute aren't you pirate hunter Zoro?" He asked.

'_Thank god he has an indoor voice!… wait _Pirate hunter_? As in sea pirates with cannons and crap? They _have_ those here?_'

"So what?" The swordsman responded, glaring at him.

'…_You know this guy isn't to bad' _Ash thought, happy that someone other then her wouldn't put up with his bullcrap.

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU KILL MY DOG? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KILL PIRATES NOT MESS WITH THE MARINES!"

'…_WHAT!? Oh no, no, no! Please tell me this guy is kidding.' _Ash thought she was going to be sick to her stomach. _'There's NO way that this guy is a Marine!'_

"DON'T YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHO I AM? I'M CAPTAIN MARINE AXE-HAND MORGAN'S SON!"

'… _See! Not a marine! Just a whiny son of one. Man I'm sick of this guy.' _Ash thought and started heading towards Rita.

"DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!" He screamed at Ash.

"Oi pipe down purple suit! I'm friends with a Major, but you don't see me cowering behind that! Rita get over here so we can go!" Ash getting very peeved at this point.

While they were talking though Rita realized who the Man in purple was.

'_Oh yeah that's Helmeppo! Man I forgot how annoying he was…' _Rita thought. Ash bent down to pick her up when Helmeppo screamed and rushed toward Ash's back with a knife!

Before Rita could do anything, Zoro thankfully came to Ash's rescue by flicking Helmeppo's sword out of the way with his own and kicked him away. He flew flat against a wall and slumped in pain.

Ash blinked in surprise and turned to see what happened.

'_Wow… I'm adding him to my 'be nice to' list!' _Ash thought looking at the swordsman.

"Attacking from behind is a coward's move." Zoro growled at Helmeppo. Helmeppo cringed in fear for a moment but soon a smirk spread across his face.

"Don't you understand? If my father finds out about this…" Helmeppo took his time to stand up, then pointed at the little girl and her mother, "Those people will be executed."

'_That's just low man…'_ Ash and Rita thought. Zoro paused as he thought about this.

"Ha ha! What do you think? Why don't we make a deal? You too long ears!"

"What? Why?" Ash's eye twitched at the nickname, but then she glared at him.

"For starters, you ignored me, insulted me, didn't listen to me, and your rat attacked my dog!" Helmeppo glared right back. "If you don't cooperate now, not only will the people die, but I'll kill the fuzz ball too!"

'_They'll …kill Rita?' _a thick feeling of dread washed over Ash at that thought. And, seeing as those marines have done nothing to help what so ever, He'd probably do it.

'_This has to be illegal. Man I wish Hailey was here. She may be a baby most of the time but when it comes to the law she's all business. She'd know what to do in this situation… then again that probably wouldn't do so much good since we're probably not on American soil.' _Ash sighed and nodded in defeat.

"Good. Now, why don't the two you go to jail instead of them? Let's see… one month! If the two of you survive one month, I'll let you go! How about it?"

"Not like there's much of a choice." Ash muttered stuffing her hands in her pouch.

"One month, right?" Zoro asked and let his sword fall from his hand and imbed itself into the floor. "Fine."

'..._I know that Zoro needs to go jail but Ash? They're going to be out there for like three weeks! What do I do?' _Rita thought as Ash and Zoro were being lead away by the marines who were just _now_ reacting to anything. Ash paused and turned her head.

"Rita? Stay here and please try not to get into anymore trouble?" Rita nodded and then they were gone. Helmeppo was about to leave too, but instead turned to the last officer there.

"Oh, before I forget kill the rat."

'_SAY _WHAT!?_' _Rita immediately bolted, running under tables and around people's legs towards the back. Thankfully they had a back door that was open by an inch.

And she kept running and running until she made it back to the ally they started at.

Sitting there catching her breath she thought about to do next.

"Well this is a fine mess you ended up in Rita…" Rita said a bit gloomily and pulled her knees up to her chest. Anime tears went down her face when she realized…

"We haven't even met Luffy yet."

* * *

And that was Chapter one! Lots of stuff going on now with Rita out on the streets and Ash tagging along with Zoro as they go to jail. well I hope one of you got a chuckle out of this anyway. until next time!


	3. Chapter 3: Small talk

_Hello! It's BerryBlast99 here with the next chapter! I'm sorry it's shorter then the last couple of chapters, but the next chapter will make up for it! ^^_

_Now onwards! to the story! :D_

_...After this disclaimer._

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything within this fanfiction with the exception of my OC's._

* * *

Chapter two

'_Huh… on the bight side I got to the place I was heading for…' _Ash thought as they were being lead to the blue buildings.

'_Jeeze we just appear in this place and already we're in trouble… and poor dude, getting stuck in this mess with me.' _Ash looked at the swordsman in front of her taking in his appearance.

He was muscular, but slim, with a lovely tan on his skin, and a few inches taller then Ash, but the oddest thing about him was his hair. It was green!

'…_Is that natural? Or does he have a _really_ good hair dye?' _Ash wondered. Then again she couldn't see it very well because it was mostly hidden under a black bandana. She also noticed he had three golden earrings in one ear.

Her eyes trailed down to see he was wearing a white t-shirt, black pants that when the light hit it had a green tinge to it, black boots, and…

'_What_ is _that?'_ Ash wondered staring at a green… belt? ultra sized head band for your waist? Before Ash could contemplate it any longer they had arrived at the gates.

They were lead to a courtyard where two crosses were set up and rope sitting next to them.

'…_That's where we're bloody staying, isn't it?' _Ash thought grumpily.

'_Gee I must physic!' _Ash added sarcastically as the marines lead them over there and started to pat them down.

'_Ah Jeeze it's like the airport!' _Ash rolled her eyes and spend her arms for them. The swordsman, Zolo? Zoro? Ash didn't quite catch it, was very reluctant to give his swords.

'_Wait he has three? Why would he need _three? _How would you even _use _the third one?' _Ash, after being pat down, was pushed against the cross and the Marine in front of her started tying her down. He tied the rope tightly around her elbows to the point she was afraid she might not get circulation.

"Oi! Boundaries!" She growled at the man as he began to wrap the rope right under her breasts… She thinks he tied it tighter around her for opening her mouth.

Once done they left without a word and she and the swordsman were stuck out there.

'_Man I'm bored…' _Ash thought trying to get in a more comfortable position. No such luck. It had been around thirty minutes and nothing had happened. And She didn't have much to look at. The courtyard was completely dirt and sand and all she could she in front of her was a boring stone wall.

'_I wonder if he's bored yet too… I ought to thank him for saving me.' _Ash thought, glancing at the swordsman. Only to find he was sleeping.

'_Well, that's one way to pass the time…_' Ash thought with a sweat drop. _'Still best to give it over with now.'_

"Hey, Thanks for earlier…" Ash thanked the man a little awkwardly. He shrugged as best he could.

"Don't mention it…" He muttered.

'_Ah! He was awake!?' _Ash felt a bit embarrassed at this. _'Guess he was just resting his eyes… Well I guess I can ask some questions.' _

"… So what's your name?" She asked. He was going to be her neighbor for a month, might as well know what to call him. He opened an eye and glanced at her for second before closing it again and answered.

"…Zoro, You?" he asked.

"Ash." She answered.

She sighed and leaned her head back and started to look for a cloud to look at or something.

"…So your friends with a Major?" Zoro asked.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah actually I'm friends with his niece. Met him a few times though nice guy." Ash explained. "Doubt he could help us right now though."

'_Seeing as he's out at sea. On earth.' _

"Your right. These marines are all corrupt, and nobody will care if a couple of people in a small town like this gets locked up."

"Gee how comforting…" Ash muttered sarcastically "Still only a month out here, better then getting killed in my book."

They stayed in a comfortable, yet slightly awkward silence for a while just listening to the wind that decided to breeze by.

"…So what's with your ears?" Zoro asked breaking the silence. Ash's eye began to twitch.

"I don't know, what's with your hair?" She snapped back.

"Hm, touché" He muttered then he yawned. "I'm taking a nap…"

"Kay…" Ash thought that was a pretty good idea herself and closed her eyes as well.

'_This is going to be a _long _month_.'

Later that night…

'_God my stomach feels like it's going to collapse on it's self.' _Ash thought as her stomach growled again. It must have been around midnight by then and Ash had managed to sleep a little while but didn't last long. It's hard to sleep standing up and the cross itself was very uncomfortable.

'_This whole day has just become a nightmare..' _Ash thought looking up to the moon. _'I just wanted to visit my best friend, but then she had to go and fall into that pit… but that's not really her fault.'_

'_I'm still a bit upset about the ear thing though, I guess I should be happy I didn't turn into an orange ferret like Rita…'_

Ash sighed and let her eyes wander around hoping to see something interesting. And, as luck would have it, there was a black smudge moving on top of the wall.

"What the?" Ash questioned as the smudge fell to the ground and came closer. And as it came closer Ash realized it wasn't black but orange…

"Rita! What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay out of trouble!" Ash hissed at Rita who stopped in front of her, panting, with a bottle tied to her back.

"Oh my god this courtyard was a lot farther then I thought it was! Phew!" Rita panted.

"Hm? What's going on?" They heard Zoro say sleepily. "Isn't that your pet from before?"

"She's not a pet. She is, however, an idiot." Ash rolled her eyes, then glared at her friend.

"I just wanted to check up on how you were doing!" Rita pouted.

"What the hell!?" Zoro jumped and looked at Rita with wide eyes.

'_We're going to get that a lot aren't we?' _Ash thought.

"Yeah, yeah she can talk…" Ash rolled her eyes "And Rita it's way to dangerous for you to be out here."

" _Fine_. However! I'll only leave once you've had a drink." Rita grinned and pulled the water bottle off her back.

Ash hadn't realized how thirsty she really was until she saw the bottle full of water.

"…Sigh fine." Rita grinned larger and then climbed up to Ash's shoulder and poured the water into her mouth. Ash guzzled it down until the half way point when Rita took it away.

Rita then leaped over to Zoro and held it over his mouth.

"I don't want any." Zoro turned his head away so Rita would have a harder time trying to pour it in his mouth.

"Oh come on! You don't want to die of dehydration do you?" Rita tried to reason while moving around to try and get the water in his mouth.

"I said I don't want any!" He growled.

"The sooner you drink it the sooner I'll leave !" Rita sang.

"Will you _really_ go away?" He asked.

"Yes." Rita grinned and held the water up closer.

Zoro sighed and drank the water to get rid of the nuisance.

"…Hey where did you get that bottle anyway?" Ash asked in confusion.

"Hm?" Rita looked up at Ash and then thought back to where she got it.

_*Flashback* _

'Sigh I hope Ash will be okay. I feel so useless! Maybe if I find some way, anyway, to help her out…' _Rita stomach then growled. '_and now I'm hungry. Great.'

_She couldn't go back to the tavern because there might still be marines crawling around and she didn't think many people would give her food, that's just wishful thinking. She didn't want to steal from them either because she remembered that Morgan was taxing them like crazy and they needed every cent they could get. _

"_Which means I have to go through…" Rita glanced at the garbage and shuddered. "No way am I going dumpster diving for food!… but maybe for other things that could be useful for later on." _

_With that in mind she jumped up on top of the garbage can and peeked inside. It was mostly filled with rotting food, old cigarette buds, and broken glass, but Rita saw two things she could use. A shoe string and a plastic bottle. _

"_That's it! I can give Ash water! Perfect!" Rita grinned happily. _

_*End flash back*_

"…I found it." Rita answered and once the water was all gone climbed done to the ground.

"Now will you get out here before someone else sees you?" Ash growled.

"Yeah, yeah just two more things!" Rita rushed over to Ash's leg and gave it a hug.

"Oi knock it off!" Ash growled getting a blush on her face. She swung her leg hoping that Rita would fly off, but no such luck. Once Rita was done hugging she sat on the ground and looked at the two people tied up on the crosses and tilted her head in thought.

"Sigh… what now?" Ash asked hoping to get Rita out of there faster.

"So you guys are tied up…" Rita said shifting her eyes between the two. "…How are you going to go to the bathroom?" She asked. Ash and Zoro sweat dropped.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?" They yelled at her. She quickly ran off saying a quick bye. A good thing as a marine came out to see what the racket was about.

'_Yep, a really long month…'_

* * *

_Hehe sorry I threw in that Zolo reference in there. I know many fans are still having nightmares of what 4kids did... shudder. However I mostly threw that in there because I think that the English manga still uses that name right? So there you go. :P don't worry it shall never be mentioned again! I hope you enjoyed! ^^_


	4. Chapter 4: Passing the time

Hello! welcome back :D I really hope that you guys will like this chapter and I also hope that the characters don't seem OOC. always something to worry about when writing a fanfiction I guess. Also I had some writer's block about the next chapter as well as a couple of scenes in this chapter. But that's fixed now! and I'm much more satisfied with the scenes in this chapter!^^

P.S I just noticed that I spelt the title of the story wrong** facepalm** so I'll fix that too.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OC's.

Now without further ado, enjoy! ^^

* * *

Chapter three

The next day Rita groaned and slowly woke up to the bright morning sun.

'_Jeeze why does the sun have to be right in my eye?' _Rita sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Man, what a weird dream. It felt so real…" Rita mumbled until she got a good look at her surroundings.

She was in a card board box on it's side, in the ally way she had at the beginning of her dream. She could still smell the garbage cans and the lingering smell of fish that surrounded the town.

Her breathing got a little quicker when she looked down at her still furry body.

"Okay breathe, I'm… still dreaming! Yeah! I've had dreams where it goes dark for a bit and then changes scenery! That's what's happening." But Rita didn't really believe the words she was saying. However if it were true…

'_Nah, it couldn't be true. Cool things like this don't happen in real-life! Only in fan-fiction or something. I mean it would be _cool_ if I'm actually here. _

_Like really, _really_, amazingly awesome… but then there's Ash she's here too. She doesn't know what's going to happen or how, well to be honest, dangerous it is here! _

_And what about mom or dad? What about _her_ dad? Jeeze he'd strangle me if anything were to happen to Ash! _

…_also whenever I envisioned myself in one piece It never crossed my mind that I would come as an orange weasel…'_

"…Well thinking about that now isn't going to help any." Rita muttered. Suddenly her stomach growled.

"Might as well get some food…" Rita shrugged and started to explore.

She made sure to keep low and try her best to stay hidden in case a Marine came around and followed through with that last order Helmeppo gave.

She some how ended up at the harbor and she stared at the water's reflection. She could now fully see what her head looked like. It was orange obviously, with yellow on her mouth and cheeks. Her ears were long and narrow with that reddish tint at the tips and then a couple strand of fur at the top longer then the rest making it kind of like hair. Her eyes, however, remained the same dark blue from before. All in all she thought she looked kind of cute.

"…Do I have a devil fruit thing going on here? It would explain the animal body I guess… But I haven't eaten any gross or weird looking fruit so maybe not?" Rita muttered to herself. If she could swim maybe she could get a fish and she wouldn't be stealing then! Plus she adored swimming, the thought of never swimming again was a bit depressing.

"Wait I know! I could get that shoe string from before and tie it on that part of the dock! Then if I can't swim I can just climb back up!" Rita grinned and ran back to get the shoe string.

Once she had gotten the string and tied one end to the wood and the other on her waist. She determinedly looked at the waves below her.

"Well here goes nothing…" She took a deep breath and dove.

'…_I don't feel any different_.' Rita thought. She cautiously peeked her eyes open (She was in saltwater after all) only to find they didn't sting at all! And odder still she could see crystal clear as if wearing a pair of goggles!

'_Wow this is great!' _She tried to move some but the string only let her move about an inch or two.

'_Well, I didn't sink like a rock so it should be safe.' _With that in mind she untied herself and moved about more freely. It was a bit odd moving around in this new body of hers. Her arms were longer and she was covered in fur. Not to mention the tail.

In fact she wasn't sure what to do with it. It was just floating there for now as she moved her arms and kicked her legs.

'_Wait don't animals sometimes use their tails to help them swim?' _she glanced at her tail once more and moved it. It pushed her a little farther, which was good but it felt like it needed something more. _'Perhaps I should try my whole body.' _

And with that she tried again and let some instinct kick in, soon she was shooting through the water much faster.

'_This is so much _fun_!_' but she finally needed some air. She swam up and burst through the surface, gulping up as much air as she could.

"Guess I can hold my breath longer too." She took another gulp of air and dove down went to find her breakfast this time.

Swimming around she could see a couple of fish swimming about lazily. She smirked and slowly swam a bit closer.

'_Don't worry fishy it won't hurt…_' Once she was in striking distance though, she thought. '_How am I going to catch these guys?' _

Some cricket noises started playing in her head when she realized she had no idea how to go about this.

'_I should have brought a fishing hook or something… no a fishing hook by itself won't do much. Maybe a net? But what if I tangle it or worse get tangled _in_ it?'_ As Rita pondered what to do she didn't notice all the fish coming up to her in curiosity.

The fishes had never seen a creature like this before and didn't know if it was friendly or not. So one brave (More like stupid) fish ventured up towards the creature face.

'… _Maybe I can grab one with my hands? I don't know if my grip is that strong and…Oh a fishy! Perfect! But how should…' _Rita's thoughts trailed off as she had a brilliant yet gruesome idea.

Staring down at the fish, still as can be, Rita got ready and…

Flicked her tail to rocket herself toward the fish, that was much to close for it's own good, sank her teeth into it's back, and wrapped her fingers on it's head and tail to make sure it couldn't get away if it tried.

All the other fish fled from the scene afraid they'll become the next meal.

Rita waited and sunk her teeth further until she let her hands let go and swam to the surface. Then she went over to her string and climbed it.

Once she was back on the docks she immediately spat out the fish and continued to spit and wipe her mouth with her hand.

"Arrg I can't believe I did that! Ah Yuck! It tasted like slimey fish! Well okay it _was_ fish but ew!" Rita stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"Sigh… a least I got my breakfast." Rita grabbed her fish (with her hands) and started to walk back to her alleyway.

However as she was walking she got this creepy feeling that you get when someone's watching you. So she walked a little quicker.

That creepy feeling was still there though and it was getting worse.

She took a deep breath and kept walking but then she heard a little 'plop' and saw something fall in front of her. Glancing at it she scrunched up her nose in disgust. It was bird poop!

'_Ew glad I saw it before I stepped on it._' She glanced up to see if she could spot the bird that did it. But what she saw made her eyes widen.

It was a large flock of seagulls flying around her staring at her with black beady little eyes. And, more importantly, they were looking at her dinner.

Rita gulped at the eerie silence and took a step away. Only for the seagulls to hop even closer to her.

'_Okay, these birds are being really creepy now so I'm just gonna go.'_

She started walking away, which quickly turned into a run as the birds took flight and started to pick and claw at her trying to get an easy meal.

"_**Mine! Mine! Mine!" **_she could have sworn is what their squawks sounded like but she really didn't care. She just wanted to get out of there!

"AH! Go away evil birds! I'm never finding you bread again!" She screamed and ran and ran until eventually she tripped. She curled around her prize and closed her eyes hoping they would just go away.

No such luck.

They peaked at her, clawed at her, squawked in her ears trying to get that fish.

Rita was about to just say screw it and let them have the smelly thing when someone started shouting.

"Hey you nasty birds! Stop that! It's not nice to gang up on something like that!" Rita heard a childish voice yell. Chancing it she peaked open one eye to see who it was.

It was the girl she helped rescue!

And that little girl was letting those birds have it with her broom!

"Go on! Shoo! Shoo!" She yelled until the birds finally got the message and flew off.

'_Ha! Nice try birds but fishy is mine!_' Rita thought and curled around her fish tightly again.

"Are you alright? You poor thing!" Rita heard the girl ask and she looked up at her. "Hey wait a minute… Ah! Your that ferret that helped me yesterday! Here…"

The little girl wrapped her little warm arms around her and gently cuddled her to her chest. Then she ran being careful not to jostle Rita and brought her into her home.

"Mom's working in the front, so I'm going to take you to my room and help you okay? I'm sure she won't mind you being here after what you did the other day!" The young girl cheerily chirped as she ran up the steps to her room.

"Here you go I'll be-oh your fish! May I have it so I can put it in the fridge?" the girl asked sweetly after she put Rita down on her bed.

"…Well okay, and thanks for the help!" Rita loosed her hold on the fish only to notice the girl's shocked face. "…What?"

"You can _talk_!? How did you learn to speak? What's your name? What's your favorite color? Are you that long eared girl's pet? Do you know why she has long ears?" The girl asked in a hurricane of questions.

"Whoa, calm down! uh, Let's see... Yes I can talk. My parents taught me when I was a baby. My name is Rita. My favorite color is blue. No I'm not Ash's pet. I'm her best friend and we both don't really know why she has long ears but she got them when she fell down into some slime. And I know you probably have a lot of questions, but uh, I'm kind of hurting here. And hungry. Very, very hungry." Rita answered.

"Oh right! Sorry I'll be right back!" She ran out of room taking the fish along with her.

Rita sighed and stretched her muscles only to hiss at the cuts.

Thankfully they weren't very deep, most of them actually felt like paper cuts, but a few were a bit deeper and had started to bleed red all over her new fur.

"I hope I don't stain her bed sheet." Rita muttered. She could hear rushed footsteps coming up the stairs the door burst open and the little girl carrying bandages and a sandwich ran in.

"I got everything! Let's wash you up so I can put the bandages on. Then you can have your sandwich." The girl said while putting the sandwich down on a desk.

She went over and carefully picked Rita up again and then walked over to the bathroom. She turned on the faucet of the sink and subbed Rita's fur with a soapy rag.

"Ah that stings! Ow!" Rita was not being the most cooperative at the moment…

"Calm down! It'll only hurt for a little bit! Stay still!" The girl tried her best to hold Rita still and scrub her down. Water and soup was getting all over her, the counter, and probably the floor.

"I don't need a bath! I just need a few band-aids!" Rita yelled and tried to climb out.

"The sooner you stop moving the sooner I'll be done, now _quit_ it! Or you won't get your sandwich!"

That made her stop trying to escape.

Finally when the girl deemed Rita clean enough she rinsed her off and wrapped her up in a warm towel. Then she took her back to her bed room and brought out the band-aids and put them over the cuts.

"There, was that so bad? Hehe here's your sandwich." the girl handed over the sandwich. Rita tore into the tuna sandwich with a happy hum.

"So my name's Rika by the way. Can I ask what you are?"

"Well that's the question isn't it? I not for sure what I am. See I fell into weird glowing slime earlier and turned into… this" Rita explained after gulping down the last of her sandwich.

"So what were you before?" Rika asked tilting her head.

"I was human. Ash is too. She fell into the slime as well but all that happened to her was her ears changing and her hair color."

'_What's the harm in letting her know? I mean it's not like anyone would believe her… then again do I _want_ to keep our origins a secret?_' Rita thought to herself.

"Wow…" Rika stared at her in wonder. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know… I need a place to stay until Ash gets out of there." Rita muttered.

"Oh I know! I know! You can stay here! I can make you food and you can sleep over there on the bed! Oh please stay!" Rika gasped in excitement.

'_I get this feeling that she views me as a pet…' _Rita's eye twitched at that thought. _'Still, she is a nice girl and it's not like I have a lot of options.'_

"Sigh, alright-"

"YAY!"

"-But it's only until Ash gets out got it?" Rika nodded her head excitedly.

"Good, glad we're on the same page."

"Come on let's play house! I'll be the mama and you can be the doggie!" Rika grinned happily and pulled Rita along to her toy chest.

'…_kind of on the same page.'_

_Later that night... _

Rita climbed onto a box she had put next to the wall of the marine base and jumped up.

She had snuck out of Rika's house when the girl had fallen asleep. Before she left she had found a water bottle in her fridge and decided to give Ash and Zoro a drink again.

So that's why she was back at the marine base. Once she was up on the box She jumped as high as she could and her hand _just _managed to grab the ledge. Pulling herself up she took another deep breath and leapt down to the ground and ran all the way over to where Ash and Zoro were tied up.

'_Jeeze it's really dark when the clouds are out. I can barely tell which one is Ash…_' Rita thought as she neared the two prisoners.

"Pst, hey Ash! I brought some water! Ash… Are you asleep? Hey!" Rita whispered and when she got no response she climbed up to Ash's shoulder.

"Ash wakie, wakie! I got some water!" Rita whispered a little louder.

The only response she got was a light snore.

"Hey come on! I got some news too…" Rita poked Ash's cheek hoping that would wake her up. Her response was a hiss and then a groan.

"W-what? Hm? Oh Rita… What are you doing here?" Ash sleepily yawned.

"I came with water of course an-What happened!" Rita gasped. The clouds moved out of the way and allowed the moonlight to shine across the courtyard. And what made Rita gasp, was the light bruise on Ash's face.

"I could say the same thing to you! Why are you covered in band-aids?" Ash replied in shock when she saw all the bandages covering Rita's body.

"Oh… Well a flock of seagulls wanted a fish I caught so… Yeah, anyways what happened?" Rita quickly brought the subject back.

Ash groaned and hung her head.

'_You know, I bet if she wasn't tied up she'd be face palming…' _Rita thought but waited patiently for her friend to fess up what happened.

"…Sigh, well that purple suit guy may have come by and said a few things. And then I said a few things and, well, he took offense." Ash sighed and looked anywhere but Rita's face, feeling a little awkward.

"What did he say?" Rita asked. She gripped her furry hands on the bottle tightly.

'_How dare he hit Ash!… then again that does seem in character for him… he's _is_ a douche bag._' Rita thought to herself before Ash began to speak again.

"Sigh, earlier today…"

_*Flashback*_

'This is the most uncomfortable thing ever…' _Ash thought and tried to shift a little to get comfier. No such luck. _

"_Well, well how's our inmates doing today?" came a smug voice. _

'Oh god damn it.' _Ash thought as a wave of annoyance washed over her._

"_I hope you two are enjoying the view! Your stuck with it for the next month HAHAHA! See this is what happens when you mess with the son of marine captain Axe-hand Morgan." Purple suit smirked, enjoying the power he held. _

_Ash was unimpressed. _

"_Oh give it a rest already, your dad this, your dad that. What has he ever done exactly?" Ash couldn't help but roll her eyes._

"_WHY YOU! SHUT UP! MY DAD DEFEATED THE GREAT CAPTAIN KURO!" Purple suit shrieked in anger. _

"_Uh-huh, and what have _you_ done?" Ash glared viciously at him but couldn't help a little smirk come across her face. "Because, from what I can see, your just a little snot who hides behind daddy's legs and anyone you don't like, you get rid of instead of dealing with reality. Now that's a level of pathetic I only heard of."_

"_S-SHUT UP!" He shrieked, clearly what Ash said stuck a cord in him. _

_So much so that he swung his arm out and backhanded the long eared girl. _

"_DON'T YOU REALIZE THE POSTION YOU ARE IN? I CAN EASILY GET YOU EXECUTED RIGHT THIS SECOND!"_

"…_But then you'd be proving my point wouldn't you?" Ash gazed steadily back at him._

_He flinched and realized she was right. He glared at her, body shaking with rage before he let out a stream out curses._

_When he had finally let out his steam, he promised to return the next day and see if she had learned any manners. _

"_Hmpf, what a douche bag…" Ash muttered as purple suit walked away. She winced a little because of the growing bruise on her cheek._

_This is when Zoro finally decided to pipe up. _

_"That was reckless."_

_"Hmpf." Ash glared at the wall in front of her hoping it would melt "I just wanted to wipe that smug smile off his face." _

_"Well you got your wish," Zoro rolled his eyes "Satisfied?"_

_Ash thought for a moment._

_"A little, yeah but..."_

_"...But we're still here." Zoro finished for her. _

_"Yeah..." Ash slumped, or at least as much as she could being tied to a wooden cross. _

_"Sigh, listen. I don't really care how you go about your business or if you get killed because of it. but, I didn't go through the trouble of saving your life just for you to throw it away by saying something at the wrong place and time. So try not to aggravate him anymore." Zoro stated. _

_"Gee, thanks," Now it was Ash's turn to roll her eyes "My heart is filled with warmth knowing that."_

_"I'm Serious." Zoro growled. _

_"I know you are! So calm down. I'm not going to do that again alright? I'll be on my best behavior." Ash growled back. _

_"Hm." Zoro grunted and looked away. _

_And they stood in awkard silence. _

_This gave Ash time to think about how she treated the man who had saved her life. _

_And she realized she felt rather bad about it. _

_So feeling the need to say something Ash opened her mouth and broke the silence. _

_"Sigh sorry. I didn't mean to get snippy at you... It's just been a stressful couple of days." She admitted._

_Zoro said nothing, however he did glance back at her to show he was listening. _

_Ash scrambled though her mind trying to think of what else she could say. She didn't want to tell him anything at the moment about what happen to her and Rita. _

_Then a humorous idea popped into her head. _

"…_You know what I'm going to do when we get out of here?"_

"_Hm? What?"_

_Ash let a mischievous smirk spread across her face and said._

"_I'm going to kick his family jewels."_

_Zoro could help but chuckle a little at the thought. _

_"Good luck with that pointy ears."_

_Ash's eye twitched as she grumbled._

_"I'm not above kicking you too..."_

_*end flashback*_

"…So, yeah that all happened because I couldn't keep my mouth shut." Ash ended recapping all that happened.

"…" Rita stared at Ash for while and then moved over to where the rope on her elbow was and begun to try and untie it.

"Whoa, Rita what are you doing!?" Ash asked in alarm.

"What's it look like? I'm going to help you get out of here." Rita determinedly answered and continued to try and get the knots undone.

"What? No Rita-sigh, listen it's not that big of a deal-"

"What do you mean 'it's not that big of a deal?' Of course it is!" Rita yelled momentarily forgetting that she had to be quiet.

They suddenly heard Zoro groan because of the yelling. That made the two girls pause before beginning to talk again, though more quieter then before.

"Listen, I know that you don't want to see me get hurt, but what do you think will happen if we try to leave now?"

"…" Rita didn't answer, but she gripped the rope tightly in her hands and didn't look up at her friend.

"If we leave now all that will happen is that these marine goons will chase us down… Rita look at me." Rita slowly glanced up at her friend and Ash could see her eyes had become a little misty with tears.

"Rita, it's going to be fine okay? We just need get through this and then we can focus on getting home okay?"

Rita blinked and wiped her tears away before asking "Aren't you mad at me?"

"What? No, of course not idiot." Ash shook her head.

"B-but it's my fault you're here and then what happened to both of us…" Rita trailed off glancing at Ash's new ears.

"That was an accident. It's not your fault." Ash said firmly.

"But, earlier you said-"

"I know what I said… and I'm sorry." Ash looked down at the ground guiltily "I was scared. I mean here I am in an ally with no idea how I got here, then a ferret begins to talk and tells me it's my best friend, and on top of that I now have fairy ears… man this sounds like stupid children's book. So yeah I was bit freaked out… and maybe a tad jealous."

"Jealous!? Of what?" Rita asked in bewilderment.

"Heh, because you took it so well. I mean what much do I have to complain about? Ears? So what?" Ash kicked the ground. "You've been turned into another _creature _and yet your taking it way better than I ever could."

Rita brought a hand to her chin and thought for a moment

"Well… I guess there's worse things I could have turned into… Like a cockroach!" Rita snapped here fingers in a 'aha!' Motion.

"I guess that's true… you could have also turned into a tick." Ash smirked.

"Ew! Dude, don't even joke about that! You know how I feel about those things!" Rita shuddered and Ash couldn't help but chuckle.

"Feel better now?" Ash asked.

Rita thought about it before she slowly began to nod.

"Good. Now enough of this touchy feely crap and how about some of that water?"

Rita nodded vigorously now and smiled as she brought the water up Ash's lips. Once Ash got half way Rita pulled it away like last time but paused.

"Do you think I should wake him up?" Rita asked glancing over at Zoro's sleeping form.

"Nah, you can give him some tomorrow." Ash replied. Rita shrugged and let Ash have the rest of the drink.

After that Rita held a thoughtful expression on her face until she made a decision.

'_It may not have been my fault about the slime or the results from that… but I was aware of what was going to happen in that tavern.' _

She leaned close to Ash's ear and whispered "In a couple of weeks something big is gonna happen…"

"What?" Ash asked confused. Rita opened her mouth to say more but then they heard movement from the other side of the courtyard.

Whipping their heads toward the sound they saw that a marine was coming out to do his rounds.

"Well it was fun seeing you!" Rita quickly spoke and leapt down. "But I gotta go now, later!"

'_That was a _really_ lame attempt to fix that, but when I get the chance I'll tell her what's going on…' _Rita thought to herself as she sprinted back to Rika's house.

Ash gazed at her retreating friend in confusion.

'_What did she mean by that? She better not be saying she'll break me out of here._' Ash's eye twitched at the thought. After going through that mush to make sure Rita understood not to break her out, just for her to disregard it later, would royally piss her off.

Speaking of being pissed off…

"Oi! Don't shine that light my face! You gun wielding_ imbecile_!"

"I carry the sword ma'am, the guard with the gun is over by the entrance." The marine calmly replied while pointing with his thumb in the other direction.

"Gah!"

* * *

...You ever notice that the marine grunts seem to either have a gun or a sword?

Anyways! So that was chapter three! Woot finally finished!

Though I have to admit I'm not entirely sure if Morgan was the guy staged to kill Kuro but that guy looked a lot like him and he was beaten up pretty badly so it's possible.

and yeah that scene with Ash and Rita was a bit cheesy but I thought it necessary. While Rita may still be in a little denial and once she's out of it will most likely fangasm, she doesn't want any actual harm to come to Ash. especially If her friend can't fight back. but they'll have another talk later about the battles they will one day have to go through.

I know I didn't really use Zoro in this chapter and I'm sorry T-T I just honestly couldn't think of how to work him in without getting a writers block about what to do next. I guess it's mostly because I don't have the firmness grasp of his character. I mean I get the basics. Loves training, booze, naps, doesn't trust easily, a slight no nonsense attitude at times, but has a sense of humor and can relax and have fun if he wants to or if the others prod him to play a game, and has ZERO sense of direction. but I don't know how he would react to Ash or Rita in real life, seeing as I'm not the creator of One Piece :p but hopefully I'm writing him decently.

Anyways! So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It'll probably take a bit longer to write the next one because it does take me a long time to write everything down. And for these last chapters I had been ahead. Sadly I've caught up now. But I know what it's like to wait. It's not fun. At all. so that's why I uploaded them so fast. Oh well. Anyways see you next time!


	5. Chapter 5: Moving Forward

YES! I FINISHED IT! HAHAHA! Oh so happy! Sorry you all had to wait so long :P Anyways here you go!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Ps. I've gotten tired of writing Rita going through denial. Honestly the only reason I had written her acting like that is because my friend suggested it and that it didn't make sense for a person to immediately accept that they just entered a fictional world and blah, blah, blah. However I've always intended for Rita to be a bit of a know it all idiot because she knows what's going to happen in One piece. And she's more fun to write that way.

Plus in the Summery I did promise someone to be head over heels, over the moon with joy in this story. And being in denial SO does not count.

So without further ado enjoy!~

* * *

Chapter four

Over the course of time waiting for Luffy to arrive Rita has finally come to grips with the fact that she is no longer on earth, or that she's just dreaming.

She is, in fact, in the world of One Piece.

'_AND THAT IS SO COOOOOOOOOOOOOL!' _Rita thought happily rolling around on Rika's bed.

'…_But I'm also an animal.' _Rita came to stop and pouted.

'…_But I'm a _cute_ animal that has a tail!' _Rita grinned and gave her tail wag.

'…_But Ash is in jail_.' And just like that Rita's face crumbled.

'…_She's going to get out soon! And we might have a chance to join the crew!_' Rita smiled and rolled on her back.

'…_That is, if Ash will accept or not… or Luffy for that matter.' _Rita sighed.

'_But even if we do get on the crew then what? I don't really want to stay like this forever… and I know Ash wants to get home as soon as possible… but this a one in a life time opportunity! I can't just ignore the most AMAZING thing that has ever happened!' _Rita growled in frustration.

The bedroom door opened and Rika poked her head in.

"Hey Rita what'cha doing?"

"Just thinking…" Rita sighed.

"Oh, well I was wondering if you'd like to come with me to the kitchen. I'm making rice balls!" Rika asked.

Rita shot up from her laying position and stared at the young girl.

"Seriously? Right now?" Rita asked in shock. It felt like time stopped for just a spilt second as her heart skipped a beat.

"Um yeah?" the young girl answered not understanding the range of emotions Rita was experiencing at that moment.

She had been waiting for this moment to happen. The moment Rika would make the rice balls to give to Zoro. Because that would be the day the adventure would truly begin.

"Are you okay?" Rika asked once she noticed the glazed over look in Rita's eyes.

All her worries about what will happen seemed to wash away as a wave of giddy excitement took over her.

"Hello?" Rika asked again trying to reach the spaced out animal that was completely ignoring her at the moment.

'_Perhaps I should just go with the flow and see what happens…' _She thought to herself.

"Hey!" Rika tried yet again to get Rita's attention.

'_Heck for all I know this could be our destiny to be here! YES ADVENTURE AWAITS US! HAHAHA!'_

"I SAID HEY!" Rika yelled getting fed up. This actually jotted Rita out of her thoughts "Do you want to come or not?!"

Rita blinked at slowly before a massive grin spread across her face.

"Yes! I would love too! Let's go!" Rita called out as she leapt down from the bed and bolted past Rika and headed towards the kitchen.

Rika blinked at the strange behavior before she shrugged and followed the orange animal down to the kitchen and started gathering ingredients…

Meanwhile…

Ash could feel the heat of the sun baking away on her head. She was sure her extremely long ears were severally sun burnt by now.

And yet, she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment as her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and memories.

She thought back to when Rita returned the next night to explain her little 'bombshell' she left with her.

_*Flashback*_

"_Welcome back…" Ash stiffly greeted Rita as she ran up towards Zoro and she. _

_She knew it wasn't really Rita's fault that she had left her that awful cliffhanger._

_ But, she still couldn't help but feel a little ticked off. _

_And luckily enough Zoro had fallen asleep at least 30 minutes ago. So now Rita can explain herself at least somewhat privately. _

"_Hi Ash," Rita kicked the dirt on the ground before looking up at her best friend. "Listen sorry about last nigh-"_

"_Save it. Explain what you meant." Ash interrupted. _

"_Okay, Okay! But… I can't tell you everything. At least not at this moment!" Rita raised her arms as she noticed Ash's glare._

"_And why not?" Ash asked getting frustrated._

"_Because I think it would be best said in a more… _private_ setting." Rita explained as her eye's drifted over to Zoro's sleeping form. _

"_Sigh alright. What _can_ you tell me?" Ash asked deciding it would be best to just go with it for now. _

"_Alright," Rita hopped up to Ash's post and leaned close to her ear just incase Zoro was merely resting his eyes or if he suddenly woke up. "In few weeks a guy is going to come to town and he's going to free you and Zoro."_

"_And just how do you know that?" Ash asked._

"_I told you I'd explain later! Now, the only other thing that you should know is that when the little girl brings you rice balls is the day that the guy arrives." And as an after thought she added. "She'll also be okay so don't worry about her getting killed or anything."_

"…What?" _Ash asked completely baffled by what she heard._

'What little girl? Why would she come-How does Rita-Why is she so calm about all this!?' _She thought frantically. _

"_Sorry. That's all I can say now." Rita shrugged._

"_Your making no sense!" She hissed._

"_Don't worry everything is gonna be a-ok!" Rita reassured. _

"_B-but Arrg!" Ash growled and threw head back in frustration. _

"_Hey just trust me okay?" Rita smiled and patted Ash's shoulder. _

"_Sigh okay. But after this…" Ash warned._

"_I'll explain I promise." Rita promised. And then she asked if Ash would like some water which she gladly accepted._

"_Okay now I have a question to ask you." Rita said after giving Ash some water. _

_Ash rose a brow in a silent gesture for her to go ahead and ask. _

"_Do you think we should tell anyone about what happened to us?" Rita asked making both of Ash's brows to rise. "Like how we got here and what happened to us and all that."_

'Hmm that _is_ a good question.' _Ash thought as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back to think. _

"_In this kind of place it's hard to say… but I think the best decision is to not tell anyone unless we trust them or if they could help us in some way. Preferably both." Ash decided. _

_Rita nodded as she thought about it. _

"_That makes sense… though I'm not going to say I was always a weasel if someone asks me up front about it."_

"… _I suppose that's fine. I doubt anyone would ask if you were something else once upon a time anyways."_

"_Good!" Rita smiled obviously more relieved now that she had been before. "I'm glad we had this talk."_

_Ash couldn't help but smile back._

"_Me too."_

_*End Flashback*_

That was two weeks ago.

During all that time Ash has been thinking about that conversation and why her friend wanted so much secrecy. Better yet how did she know anything that was going to happen? Was she going to make these events happen? Did she overhear some one talk about it? It was all rather confusing to her.

'_But just because I agreed to not ask Rita about it doesn't mean I can't get info on my own…' _Ash thought to herself as she glanced over at the bored out of his mind swordsman.

Though she didn't know what else to ask him at the moment. She had gotten quite a bit of info from him before…

_*Flashback*_

_Pop…_

_Pop…_

_Pop…_

_Po-_

"Would you cut that out!?" _Zoro yelled at Ash. For the last few minutes she had been making a loud popping noise and it was really starting to grate on his nerves. _

"_Sorry I thought I'd entertain myself." Ash grumbled as she slumped again her post. _

_The two haven't really talked much this whole time and there was nothing interesting to look at. It was even a clear day so she couldn't even cloud watch! _

_She had to resort to desperate measures. _

"_And you couldn't have done it in a less annoying way?"_

"_Didn't think you'd appreciate my singing." Ash grumbled and rolled her eyes._

"_Oh very funny." Now it was Zoro's turn to roll his eyes. _

"_Well, what do _you_ suggest then mister swordsman?" Ash asked sarcastically. _

"_Why don't you just look at some clouds or something?" He suggested. _

"_Oh yeah because there's _so_ many to choose from!" Ash gestured at the clear blue sky. _

"_Then just take a nap!"_

"_I already took a nap! I can't sleep all day!" Ash yelled._

"_Why not?" Zoro growled._

"_Not everyone can give a sloth a run for his money!" Ash yelled._

"_Shut up! I'm nothing like a sloth!" Zoro yelled and glared at her. _

_And the two had a glaring match, they didn't even blink when the wind blew loudly by. Until Ash realized what she just did._

'…Ah! great I just insulted my savior. Way to go.' _Ash thought feeling guilty about snapping at the tied up swordsman. '_Wait, swordsman…'

"…_So you're _really_ a swordsman?" Ash asked skeptically. _

"_What?" Zoro asked completely thrown off by the sudden turn of the conversation._

"_I asked if your really a swordsman?" Ash asked again. _

"_Don't change the subject!" He growled._

"_Oh, so you _want_ to keep talking about how your naps rival the slowest animal on the planet?"_

"_Grr…" His eye twitched as he realized she had a point. _

"_Right then. Now as I asked before, Are you really a swordsman? I've never seen one before." Ash admitted. _

"_Really?" Zoro rose a skeptical eyebrow "Not once?"_

"_Nope. Most people use guns." _

"_Hmpf, why the sudden interest?" He asked feeling the annoyance from before slowly fading away_

"_It's been something that's been on my mind for a while and since we're talking anyway…" She trailed off with a shrug. _

"…_Yes I'm a swordsman. In fact, my ambition right now is to become the world's greatest swordsman." He spoke seriously before a large smirk spread across his face as he thought about his dream. _

"_World's greatest huh? And how are you going to go do that?" Ash asked curious._

"_I'm going to challenge the current world's greatest swordsman and defeat him." Zoro spoke with such determination and certainty it made Ash realize that this wasn't just some dream that would fade away and become a fleeting idea that would pop up for a moment now and then._

_He was dead set on this and going to make this dream a reality. _

'Wow. A bit inspiring actually…' _She thought as stared at the tied up swordsman. '_but there's one thing that still bugs me.'

"_Is that right? Then what's with the …Pirate hunter thing? Isn't that what purple suit called you?"_

"_Ah, that's just a way to get a quick buck. I catch a local idiot and then I can get some grub." Zoro explained. _

"_Oh." That made sense to Ash. Except it still doesn't explain the whole _pirate_ thing. _

"_So do you have a job or profession of some sort?" Zoro asked after a bit. It only seemed fair he got to know something after telling her a bit about himself. _

"_Huh? Oh. Nah, I'm still in school. Not sure what I'm going to do after it…" She answered and would have waved the question off if her hands weren't tied. _

"_Schooling huh? For what?" Zoro asked a bit curious. _

"_Oh you know high school." Ash answered but she saw his questioning glance and realized the he, in fact, did not know. _

"_Er, never mind. Anyways school is the last thing on my mind at the moment. I just want get home."_

"_What you lost or something?" Zoro asked._

"_You could say that…" Ash muttered before she thought of something "Say do you know where we're at?"_

"_A marine base?" Zoro said sarcastically. _

"_Ha ha. No, seriously where are we, like, what's the name of this city?" _

"_You're asking the wrong person here long ears." Ash's eye twitched at the name. _

"_So you don't know either then?" _

"_I think I vaguely remember the name but it wasn't really important to remember." Zoro shrugged. "I wasn't really planning on staying here for a month."_

"_Hm great." Ash muttered. She was little ticked off that she still hasn't gotten any useful info yet._

"…_I've been meaning to ask but that critter of yours what exactly is she?" Zoro asked after an awkward moment of silence passed between them. _

"_Eh? You mean Rita?"_

"_Yeah. Don't know of any kind of animal that can talk."_

"_And your taking that very well might I add," Ash added with a playful smirk. "To answer you're question though, honestly I'm just assuming she's an orange talking weasel at this point. Maybe an otter or a meerkat. Either way your guess is as good as mine." Ash shrugged helplessly as she had no clue as to what her friend had transformed into or why for that matter._

"_Why doesn't she just tell you?" Zoro asked. To him that seemed like the simplest way to figure it out. _

"_It's not that simple." Ash mumbled. _

"_Why not?" He asked causing Ash to think deeply on the matter._

'Should I tell him about Rita? It's too soon to say we were magically transported from one place to the next and had our bodies warped on top of it… But then again Rita said she wouldn't hide the fact she use to be human…'

"…_Because I don't think she knows herself." Ash answered quietly._

"_How can she not know what she is?!" Zoro yelled._

"_Told you it wasn't simple." She shrugged._

"_I'm beginning to think your just yanking on my chain here." Zoro grumbled. _

"_Say, I thought you didn't want to pry into my personal life?" Ash playfully smirked again. _

"_I'm not prying! I was just curious, big ears!" _

"_Don't call me big ears! Grass head!"_

"_Who're you calling Grass head!?" _

"_HAHA! Isn't this cute? You two are fighting like children! It's quite Hilarious!" A voice laughed at them. _

_Both Ash and Zoro turned their heads toward the source and glared at the approaching figure. _

_It was none other then purple suit and his two body guards._

_Of course._

"_You know Zoro It's rude to yell at a lady. But then again she can hardly be called one with her personality now can she?"_

'Don't say anything. You can take his loud obnoxious voice. Don't say anything. You're a big girl. Don't say anything.' _Ash thought to herself, desperately trying to hold her tongue. She didn't want to make Rita worry again. _

"_And as for you it's also quite rude to insult the man who saved you it isn't it? My what a horrible little girl you are! HAHA!" Purple suit laughed._

"_What do you want?" Zoro asked. _

"_Hm? Oh so you feel like talking today eh, Roronoa? Of course I don't think either of you are in the position to ask me anything. Especially the freak with the ears." He smirked and pointed at Ash._

_She growled softly to herself but then realized what he was doing. _

'He's trying to rile us up so he can execute us…' _With that in mind Ash straightened herself and calmly stared at the funny looking man in the purple suit who began to go on and on about how they shouldn't have messed with him in the first place or get on the wrong side of the marines and blah, blah, blah._

"_You know you two are lucky my father is to busy to bother with the likes of you or else I don't think he'd be as kind as I to let you both live."_

_The two prisoners glared at him and they both wished he's burn on the spot. Sadly this didn't happen. _

_Purple suit glared at them when he noticed they weren't getting as riled up as he wanted before he smirked. _

"_Anyways the reason I'm here is because there's a new law I think the two of you ought to hear." He sneered and glanced at Ash as he spoke "From now on, anyone or thing that helps a prisoner or enters this courtyard without permission is considered to be an enemy of the world government and will be immediately executed. So I hope for your little rat's sake that it doesn't come by HAHAHA!"_

"_Rita…" Ash whispered worried for her best friend. _

'Does he know that she's been by? Is she in danger now? Or is all this just to intimidate us?' _She wondered. _

"_HAHA, Ah well look at the time! It's lunch! Oh it's going to be delicious! Juicy lobster with butter! HAHA!" He laughed and began walking away with his guards following behind him. _

"_I really hate that guy." Ash muttered and Zoro grunted a grunt in agreement._

"_So what are you planning to do?" Zoro asked._

"_huh? About what?"_

"_Rita, of course. Your gonna have to tell her she can't come around anymore." Zoro explained. _

"_Sigh, your right." Ash sighed feeling sad that she won't be able to see her friend of a long while. _

_Later that night…_

_Both She and Zoro were awake as they watch the familiar silhouette run across the courtyard._

"_Hey guys! I got some water for ya! And I brought a little bit of meat! I know it's not much but-_

"_Rita." Ash interrupted with a no nonsense tone in her voice causing Rita to pause. _

"_What?" she asked curiously tilting her head to side._

"_Rita, listen you can't come by anymore." _

"_What? why?" Rita asked as she crossed her arms and stared at the two. "It hasn't been a problem before."_

"_Purple suit came by again today." Ash could see Rita tense up at the mentioning of the purple suited man child. "He told us that anyone who helps us will be executed."_

"…_Is that all?" Rita asked bored. _

"_W-what!?" Ash blinked shocked then scowled fiercely "Don't you get it!? If you keep coming here you're going to get killed!"_

"_I already knew that since I've been sneaking in here." Rita responded bluntly. _

"_You did?" Zoro questioned "Then why have you been coming nearly every night?" _

"_Duh, I want to help Ash in anyway that I can." Rita replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. _

"_Rita… While I appreciate the thought please don't come by anymore." Ash closed her eyes as she resolved in herself to do this. _

"_Why is this any different then before?" Rita asked getting frustrated. "I've been doing this for over a week now!"_

"_Because he mentioned you." Zoro answered calmly. _

"_Huh?" Rita looked at the swordsman in confusion. _

"_He said he hoped for your sake you don't come back." Ash growled before opened eyes again. "I don't know if he's bluffing but if he knows that you've been coming here, your in even more danger than before."_

_Finally Rita looked a little concerned. _

"_He said that?" She asked quietly and the two prisoners nodded their heads._

"_If you really want to help then stay away until this deal is up. Otherwise you might become more of a hindrance than a help." Zoro said._

_Rita bit her lip a little and Ash knew that with just a little more pushing she'd listen. _

"_Please, Rita I…" Ash looked away feeling a little embarrassed about what she was about to say. "I don't want to see my best friend hurt alright?"_

_Rita blinked and then…_

"_Aw, Ash you do care! Your so adorable!" She squealed quietly before rushing over to ash's leg and gave it a hug. _

"_Rita! I'm being serious!" Ash blushed and growled as she tried to kick her friend of her leg._

"_Sigh I know. You're being _to _serious." Rita pouted before peeling herself off of Ash's leg. "So you really want me to go then?" _

"_Yes." Both Zoro and Ash agreed. _

"…_Alright I'll listen to you for now. But before I go you're going to eat this food and drink this water you got it?" Rita crossed her arms yet again and stared at them determined to get them to eat something. _

"_Fine." Ash agreed knowing it get Rita to leave quicker. _

_Rita leapt up next to Ash and held up the meat._

"_Hey how come she gets to go first?" Zoro asked as he felt his stomach ache at the sight of delicious meat. _

"_Ladies first Zoro, sorry." Rita cheekily grinned making Zoro grumble. _

_As Rita held up a piece of what looked like chicken Ash's mouth watered and her stomach gave a large growl. As she ate it she savored the taste knowing it'll be long time before she would get anything to eat again. _

_Then after she had some water Rita repeated this processes with Zoro. Once she was done Ash didn't have time to react when she tackled her stomach._

"_Oomph!" Ash felt Rita grip tightly to her as she tried to bury her head in her stomach. _

"'_m Gnna mff uu!" Rita mumbled. Ash sighed, apart if her wishing she could pat her friends back._

"_I'll miss you too. don't worry though. Soon this whole thing will be over and we can get the hell out of here." Rita nodded to this then she peeled herself off once again only to go tackle Zoro in a hug._

"_W-Why are you doing that!? Stop it!" Zoro growled out uncomfortable by the sudden contact._

"_eKaphf 'm Gnna mff uu tuu!" She mumbled into his side. He glanced over to Ash hoping for a translation._

"_She said 'because I'm going to miss you too.'" Ash translated._

"_Oh… you can let go now I got the picture!" He grumbled when it looked like Rita wasn't going to let go. _

_When she finally decided to let go she inhaled looking like she was about to make a large speech of some kind as she raised a finger slowly in the air-_

"_GET OUT OF HERE ALREADY!" The two yelled before she could say anything making Rita pout. _

"_What's going on out there?" They heard some guard well. _

"_Meep! that's my cue! Bye guys! See you later!" Rita called as she dashed away. _

*End flash back*

And thankfully Rita stayed true to her promise. But Ash was finding that she was sorely missing the little fuzz looked around the courtyard hoping for _something_ to look at.

No luck.

'_At least talking to Zoro answered a few things.. Not any of the real _important _things but you should take what you can get._'

She was about to try and make conversation with the swordsman again when she heard some shuffling.

Her sun burnt ears perked up as she heard some one talking on the other side of the wall.

"AH! LUFFY GET DOWN FROM THERE! SOMEONE MIGHT SEE YOU!" She heard some one yell and she saw a boy with black hair, hidden underneath a straw hat, and tanned complexion hanging by the wall.

"Eh? So, where is he?" The Straw hat boy asked looking around.

Ash blinked at the oddity of what was happening.

"He wouldn't be outside like this… He's locked up, isolated, somewhere deep inside probably." She heard the mutterings of another boy who had yet to make an appearance.

'_Wow, I must have good hearing. Guess these ears are useful for something after all.'_

"Hey! There he is!" The straw hat boy cried out excitedly and then he duck out of view. Ash could hear footsteps so he must be running over for a closer view.

'_I guess he's looking for Zoro since we're the only two here._' Ash guessed and wondered what they were up to.

And then he was back again and Ash could see his larger than life grin that took up much of his face and a little scar under his eye.

"See there he is!" He pointed over at Zoro. Knew it.

"Luffy I really don't think that's him…" The other boy spoke before he heaved himself up and Ash could see him now.

Her eye twitched at the very flamboyant color of his hair. This kid had pink hair and dorky round blue glasses and a round face that had yet to lose it's baby fat.

And he looked horrified at what he saw.

'_What's got him so worked up over?' _Ash wondered.

"So if we untie him, he can escape right?" 'Luffy' asked his pink haired companion.

'_But that would involve coming into the courtyard and helping him. Best try to dissuade him from taking that foolish course.' _Ash thought to herself.

"Don't say stupid things like that! What do you think will happen if we let him go!? He'll kill you!" The pink haired kid yelled trying to reason with the other boy.

"No problem, I'm strong." Luffy smirked.

"Hey you two!" Ash called and got their attention.

"Eh? Who's that?" Luffy asked pointing at her.

"Huh? Oh! I… I don't know, but she must be dangerous if the Marines arrested her!"

"I can _hear _you two you know! Now get out of here before you get into trouble!" She yelled at them feeling a bit ticked off that that kid thought she was a bad person for simply being there.

'_Then again if the tables were turned I might have thought the same…_' she thought as she felt a large drop of sweat go down the back of her head.

"But I want to meet Zoro and see if he's strong!" Luffy whined.

"Just wait another few days then you can get your chance! Now beat it!" She yelled hoping he'd listen. For some reason she felt like that wasn't going to happen.

"Eh? But why would I do that if I could just see him now?" He asked tilting his head confusedly.

"L-Luffy! Just take her advice! No wait, just drop this whole crazy idea of yours!" The pink haired boy begged his friend.

"Listen to her kid. Get lost." Zoro growled out in an intimidating manner. "You're bothering me."

The pink boy screamed in fear while the other boy just stared at him.

"Luffy, if you recruit him it won't matter how many lives you have!" He whispered frantically at Luffy.

'_Recruit? What does he mean by that?' _Ash wondered before she heard a light bang and saw the two boy's glance to their side.

Her eyes widened when she saw not only a little girl's head pop but also…

"_Rita!" _Ash growled menacingly.

…

Rita gulped at her friend's murderous look. And Zoro's look made her sweat and shake. She's never been around someone so angry at her in her life. But she took a deep breath and calmed herself. This was necessary.

"Hi guys!" She smiled and waved as Rika ran over ignoring the pissed off looks of both Ash and Zoro.

She also didn't notice when Luffy and Coby looked at each other wondering if they were hearing right.

"Rita, just what do you think you're doing here? We _told_ you to not come back! And yet _here you are!_ In the day time no less! And further more why is _she_ here!?" Ash nodded down at Rika scowling.

"I came to give you two some rice balls! I wanted to thank you for what you did for us! And I thought you two might be hungry so I made these!" Rika explained as she held up the rice balls for all to see.

"Tch, We don't want them. Now go home." Zoro told the young girl bluntly and looked away from the rice.

"But…" Rika looked at them sadly.

"Listen kid if you go right now and promise to _never_ come back here we'll eat whatever you want us to, but you have to go right now!" Ash urged the young child.

"B-but this is the first time I made them! I made them with my whole heart!" Rika held out the rice balls further desperately wanting them to change their minds.

"We already told you no! Now get out of here! Don't make me hurt you little girl!" Zoro yelled glaring at the poor child.

Rita watched all this calmly from her perch on Rika's little shoulder. She knew that Zoro may have seemed a bit harsh, but his heart was in the right place. Glancing at Ash, though, she could see her shaking in fury.

Not that she could blame her, this must have looked like a stupid stunt but…

"Ash, don't you remember what I told you?" Rita asked sincerely wondering if or better yet how could her friend forget that meeting of theirs.

Ash blinked and uttered a 'Huh?' Before she could say more though, they heard the sound of a gate opening. All whipped their heads to see the new comer only to groan in their heads at the sight of him.

Purple suit.

Rita felt a great amount of annoyance for the cowardly man as she remembered that he had hurt Ash when she couldn't even fight back. She was looking forward to when Luffy would smack him.

Ash, on the other hand, felt a twinge of fear grip her heart as he walked closer and closer to both the little girl and Rita. More then anything she wanted to get out of her bonds and snatch the two away from him and never look back.

She also felt a powerful rage because the sniveling coward had been holding the threat of killing Rita over her head constantly and the only reason she hasn't tried to smash his head in is because she was restrained.

But she could still think about it.

"Now, now Zoro you shouldn't bully little kids!" He smirked and walked over to both Rita and Rika.

"It's looks like both you and the long eared freak are still rather lively aren't you?" Then he noticed Rita on Rika's shoulder and glared before glancing at one of his guards. "Why is that rat here?"

"W-we're sorry sir! We couldn't catch it before!" The marine answered nervously and sweating bullets.

"Hm, I suppose I can forgive you this one time, but don't disappoint me again! Or else I'll see to it that my father has you hanged!" Helmeppo glared before turning back to Rika.

"Oh Look at this!" Helmeppo laughed before he snatched the rice balls from Rika's little hands "I think I'll try some of this!"

"Hey those aren't for you!" Rika cried trying to reach for the food.

"Shut up!" He yelled. Rita growled lowly to herself. She had been there to see Rika make the little rice balls herself and the look of joy as she had proudly presented them before asking her when they should go had made Rita's heart melt with cuteness. Now he was crushing that feeling.

'_However he's going to get a surprise isn't he? Mwahahaha!' _Rita thought eagerly.

She watched as he tossed one of the rice balls into his mouth… And desperately held back from laughing as his face became red before he spat the rice out.

"Cough- Wha-Hack! WHAT THE-COUGH- WHAT DID YOU PUT INTO THIS!?" Helmeppo screeched as tears gathered up in his eyes and he quickly began fanning his hand near his tongue.

"I-in that one I put in red pepper flakes, black pepper, paprika, and cinnamon! R-Rita said Ash's likes spicy food so I put in what ever I thought she might like…" Rika explained shakily as she was now afraid that she was going to get into very serious trouble.

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT!? THE ONLY THING THAT SHOULD GO WITH RICE IS SALT YOU IDIOT! SALT!" He shrieked some more Before he looked over at Ash with an accusatory look. "WAIT DIDN'T YOU CALL THAT RAT BY THAT NAME!?"

"She isn't a rat!" Ash glared at the man but he wasn't listening anymore as glared at little Rika again.

"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID OR SOMETHING!? RATS CAN'T TALK!" He then threw the rice down on the ground an proceeded to grind his heel into it.

"NO! Stop it!" Rika cried as she fell to her knees and tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Oi! Knock it off you douche bag!" Ash yelled out as she tried to kick him but to no avail. Her legs could only go out so far from the post she was tied on. Rita on the other hand…

**CHOMP!**

…Everyone stared at the little orange weasel that had just latched her teeth into Helmeppo's arm in stunned silence.

That Helmeppo broke.

"AHHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! WHAT IF IT HAS _RABIES!? _AHHH! OW! THAT HURTS!" Helmeppo shrieked as he waved his arm around hoping to dislodge the little rodent.

Zoro and Ash stared in exasperation and shock, while Luffy began to laugh his head off, and Coby just stared in horrified confusion.

"T-This is just… "Coby trailed off trying to make sense of what all was happening. And failing. Miserably.

Finally Rika grabbed a hold of Rita's tail and pulled with all her little might to get the angry weasel off Helmeppo's arm.

Rita glared at the purple suited man and sunk her teeth further in making him cry out in pain once more before she released him from her hold causing her to crash into Rika and they tumbled onto the ground.

Helmeppo gripped his injured arm tenderly and held it close to his chest whining about how that horrid beast attacked him.

Rita rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry at him.

'_Yeah, I hope that that wound gets infected ya piece of crap!' _Rita thought viciously to herself. She knew what she just did was incredibly reckless but she couldn't help herself.

Rika was now her friend after saving her from those flock of birds and letting her stay in her home. It hurt seeing her cry.

Helmeppo glared at them and Rita glared right back at him. It felt like there was a electric spark fizzling in-between their gazes. No one knew how long this glaring match would last.

Until Rita hissed at him that is.

With a girlish flinch Helmeppo turned around a screamed at one of the marine guards.

"TOSS THEM OUT!" And to the other marine he screamed "AND YOU FIND ME SOME BANDAGES!"

The first marine approached them as Helmeppo stomped his feet back towards the main building, and crouched down.

"I'm sorry miss please try to curl into a ball." He mumbled apologetically.

Rika blinked at what the man said only to scream when he _literally _tossed her and Rita over the wall.

Thankfully they were caught by Luffy. Sadly for Rita, though, she was crushed between the two of them when they landed on the ground.

'_C-can't… breathe!' _Rita thought to her self as she tried vainly to use her little arms to push Rika just a tiny bit away so could get some fresh air into her lungs.

Only for Luffy to let go of them a second later making her vain attempts seem rather pointless. Either way she greedily sucked air into her lungs while Coby came over to see if they were okay.

"I'm fine." Rika reassured Him and then smiled over at Luffy "Thank you for catching us!"

Rita looked up at Luffy and had to fight the urge to girlishly scream and hug him with every ounce of her being.

'_Stay calm. Be cool. It's just Luffy the captain of the straw hat pirates and the main character of the show. R-remember he's an idiot! Think of a stupid Luffy moment!' _And then Rita promptly thought of Luffy picking his nose and the urge tackle him and gush quickly went out the window.

"Y-Yeah, thanks!" Rita smiled and rubbed the back of her neck.

After she spoke though, Luffy's eyes lit up like two glittering stars and his mouth spread across his face in a wide grin.

"AWESOME! So you _were _the one talking over there!" Luffy yelled excitedly.

"Um… yes?" Rita blinked and felt a drop of sweat roll down her neck. Here she was trying not to gush and fan girl on him and there he goes gushing about her.

Weird.

Though when she thought about it made sense since she's not 'human' anymore.

"EH!? BUT HOW!? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Coby shrieked freaking out.

'_Anything's possible for a possible…' _Rita couldn't help but think.

"You'll soon learn a lot of things are possible in this world." Rita smirked and crossed her arms feeling a tinge of smugness because of her foreknowledge.

"AHHH! IT DID IT AGAIN!" Coby screamed again and held his hands up to his face.

"COOL! Say something else!" Luffy grinned and crouched closer to Rita.

"Like what?" Rita blinked and tilted her head wondering what Luffy would like to hear from her. This was becoming rather surreal for girl-turned-weasel.

"I-I… TH-THIS IS TO MUCH!… FIRST LUFFY WITH HIS IMPOSSIBLE STRENGTH! THEN… THE MARINES THROWING LITTLE GIRLS AROUND! A-AND NOW TALKING ANIMALS!? THIS IS CRAZY! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! I-I CAN'T! I-" Coby screamed and trembled looking as though he was about to lose his mind.

**Thwack! **

"Oi Coby calm down already." Luffy muttered after hitting Coby across the head.

"Ow…" He mumbled rubbing his sore head. Rita blinked yet again at the display in front of her.

'_Wow he's really stressed out isn't he? Some how this is more surreal for him than it is for me… and I was turned into another creature and ended up in a fictional world.' _She thought to herself.

"Rita are you okay?" Rika asked her taking the attention off of Coby and his little episode.

"Eh? yeah I'm fine. You?" She asked and with that Coby snapped out of his panic and scurried over to Rika checking her over and asking about her health.

Rita noticed Luffy looking towards the wall and she smiled knowing he wanted to talk to Zoro.

"We'll be over at the tavern on main street. You can talk to them now if you want, nobodies around." Rita smiled at him and then walked over to Rika and Coby. Luffy stared at her for moment before grinning and pulling himself over to the other side.

…

On the other side of the wall Ash was contemplating on what had just occurred.

_**Now, the only other thing that you should know is that when the little girl brings you rice balls is the day that the guy arrives." And as an after thought she added. "She'll also be okay so don't worry about her getting killed or anything."**_

'_Arrg! How could I have forgotten about that! And _just_ after thinking about it too!' _Ash wished she could slap herself for that lapse of memory.

She sighed and gazed at where Rita and the little girl were thrown. She was grateful that Luffy kid had caught them. And from the sounds of it he was also taking Rita's speaking very well. To well maybe.

'_So we're leaving today huh?' _It felt odd knowing the time has finally arrived. For the first week she was anticipating something to happen and when it didn't she began to think maybe her friend was wrong.

So much for that.

She sighed and gazed at the ruined rice that was splattered all over the ground. It was despicable what purple suit did and she wished she could have kicked him. Or punch him, that also would have been nice.

Her stomach growled loudly reminding her how hungry it was and then ached as if to tell her 'how dare you denied me food! Foolish fool!'

She looked up when she heard someone land over by the wall and noticed that it was the straw hat boy from earlier. She stared and wondered just what did he want that couldn't wait a few more days?

"So you two are bad guys?" He asked them gazing back and forth at them.

"You're still here?" Zoro asked.

"Are you _really_ that strong being publicly humiliated here like this?" Luffy asked Zoro crossing his arms looking a tad unimpressed.

"Mind your own business!" Zoro yelled at him. Luffy quietly hummed at him before directing his attention towards Ash.

"What about you? Are you strong at all?" He asked curiously.

"I… Guess I'd be average." Ash rose a brow and slowly answered as she wasn't expecting to be asked anything since she knew this kid was here for Zoro.

"Aw…" He pouted before he grinned and pointed at her head.

'_Please don't ask about the-' _

"You have really big ears! How'd you get them so big?" He asked cheerfully interrupting her thought.

'_Dang it!' _Ash hung her head and grit her teeth feeling her face darken in anger.

"Shut up. And go away." She growled trying to get herself to calm down.

"You guys are mean." He pouted before looking a bit thoughtful. "So you guys have been out here for _how_ long without food already?"

"For about… hmm, Zoro do you remember?" Ash asked realizing she had some how lost count of the days.

"About two or three weeks. We have only ten more days left by my count." Zoro responded and Luffy gave out a long whistle.

"Wow, no wonder your cranky! I probably would have starved within three days!" Luffy grinned.

"That's the difference between us." Zoro smirked "My will is stronger. I will survive this ordeal and show that to them. This I swear."

"Eh, what a stubborn guy." Luffy thought aloud.

'_You're telling me…' _Ash thought to herself. After spending so much time with the guy she could attest to that.

"Wait," Zoro called to Luffy as the kid was about to walk away.

"Could you get that?" He asked and nodded toward the ruined rice that was still splattered on the ground.

"Huh? You want this?" Luffy asked as he bended down and picked some up. "It's more like a mud ball now."

"JUST SHUT UP AND GIVE IT TO ME!" Zoro yelled at him.

**Gurgle…**

Ash blushed as her stomach made a loud noise that brought the attention of both the men to her.

"…Us. Give it to us." Zoro amended as he looked at the tied up girl before looking back at Luffy.

Luffy shrugged and proceeded to give half the rice to Zoro and the other half to Ash.

Ash tried her best to shallow what she had been given for it was nothing more then chewy rice with a crap ton of sugar, spices, tiny, hard pieces of rock, and dirt.

Still she was extremely grateful to have anything at this moment.

"Told you so." Luffy spoke when Zoro started to cough on his portion of rice.

"It was delicious, thanks for the food." Zoro spoke quietly and Ash nodded trying to keep the precious food in her stomach.

Once she felt safe enough to open her mouth she told Luffy he'd better get out of there before the blasted purple suit comes back.

"Right then see ya!" He waved at them before climbing over the wall.

"…Today has been eventful." Ash mumbled as she leaned back against the wooden cross.

"Hm…" Zoro hummed before he leaned his head back and proceeded to take a nap.

Ash sighed and looked up at the clouds that dotted the sky.

At least she's not gonna die of boredom…

…

"Why would the marines do something like that?" Coby wondered to himself aloud.

Rita, Rika, and he were sitting in the tavern waiting for Luffy to come back and had been in a rather comfortable, albeit somewhat tense, silence until he had decided to break it.

Rita sighed and gave him a pitying look. It annoyed her that he held the marines in such high esteem but she knew it couldn't be helped.

Coby's dream was to become a marine and there's no reason why he shouldn't go after it.

'_At least he becomes cooler later on. He's so lame right now.' _she thought as a drop of sweat rolled down her head.

With one more sigh she decided to just go right out say it.

"It's because the marines here are corrupt." She told him bluntly.

"W-what!? But that can't be true! The marines are the good guys!" Coby exclaimed causing Rita to roll her eyes.

"Okay, perhaps _some_ of them aren't, but we know for a fact Morgan is." Rita explained bluntly yet again though she had a more annoyed look on her face.

"WHAT!? BUT MORGAN'S IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HERO!" Coby yelled causing all the residents in the tavern to flinch violently and stare at them in fear. "U-um, sorry!"

"She's right though…" Rika spoke quietly so the other people in the tavern couldn't hear them. "Captain Morgan is really, really, mean!"

"B-but…" Coby mumbled in shock, though he thankfully stopped screaming.

"You'll find out for yourself soon enough Coby." Rita waved him off, before stretched her limbs.

Coby looked down in thought and that was when Luffy walked in.

"Hey everyone!" Luffy grinned and walked up to them.

"Hi Luffy! What did you talk to Zoro about?" Rita asked getting straight to the point.

"Eh, just asked few things." He waved the question off before he turned to Rika and grinned. "And by the way both Zoro and the long eared girl said thanks for the food! They thought it was delicious!"

"You mean they ate it? All of it?" Rika asked excitedly.

"Yep, they ate everything!" Luffy laughed as he sat down.

"That makes me so happy!" Rika sighed in relief.

"So then ...is Zoro really an evil guy like they said?" Coby asked, although you could hear the twinge of doubt in his voice.

"NO!" Both girls yelled at him causing him to flinch again.

"Zoro is a great guy! And Ash is a wonderful person!" Rita defended them while Rika nodded her head in agreement.

"Eh? Who's Ash?" Luffy asked curiously.

"The long eared girl, wearing red." Rita explained sweetly before turning back to glare at Coby as if daring him to say anything bad about her best friend.

"W-why are you looking at me so evilly?" Coby whimpered at the small critter.

"They really are good people! The only reason they got into trouble in the first place was because of us." Rika spoke ignoring what Coby had just said and then she proceeded to explain what happened all those weeks ago.

Rita tuned out while she explaining and gazed around the tavern. Why listen to something you already experienced? She only tuned back in when she realized Rika had started crying.

She leapt over to the young girl and tried her best to give her a hug. It was rather awkward when your arms were so short. Rika smiled anyways and wrapped her arms around her as well.

"So that's what happened…" Coby muttered to himself feeling guilty that he had judged so harshly before getting all the facts.

They all jumped when the door to the tavern crashed open and the spoiled brat Helmeppo walked in.

Helmeppo sat down and kicking his legs up on the table as his men started to trash the place. It gave Rita an immense amount of pleasure seeing a bandage on his arm and the rather annoyed look on his face.

"Hey! I'm hungry and I'm having a bad day! So we're eating for free you got that!" He yelled. "And get some alcohol in here!"

"Yes sir right away!" Rika's mother spoke and ran to get some drinks while all her other costumers quickly ran out of the building.

"You know I think I've been patient enough with that blasted swordsman and that freakish girl. I've grown quite bored of their punishment anyhow." Helmeppo then smirked wildly as he made his announcement.

"I've decided that Roronoa Zoro and that long eared freak shall be executed tomorrow! HAHA-"

**CRASH!**

… No body knew when Luffy had moved or the exact moment he punched Helmeppo but he had enough power behind it to send the purple suited man across the room.

And it seemed he wasn't finished as he started walking over to where Helmeppo landed and raised his fist again.

However Coby ran up behind him and held him back, pleading for him to stop.

'_Ah, but there's nothing stopping me!~ Mwahahaha!' _Rita thought eagerly as she charged at the fallen man aiming to sink her teeth into his leg this time.

…At least, that was her _plan_ before Rika gabbed her tail making her fall flat on her face.

"…Ow" Came Rita muffled voice, though no one could hear it, do to all the commotion.

"This guy is trash!" Luffy growled and tried yet again to punch him, only for Coby to hold back some more.

"I-I GOING TO TELL MY FATHER ON YOU AND HAVE YOU EXECUTED!" Helmeppo cried holding his wounded cheek as tears built up in his eyes.

"Why don't you just do something for yourself?" Luffy asked the rather pathetic man.

"Luffy calm down! You don't want the marines to be your enemy!" Coby cried out desperately trying to hold the straw hat boy back.

'_He _does _remember Luffy's a pirate, right?' _Rita asked herself as sat herself up and just watch the action unfold before her.

"I've decided." Luffy spoke and all drew their attention towards him. "I'll have them join my crew."

* * *

Phew! my longest chapter yet! ^^ Now things are really going to get started!

And in case if a few of you were wondering about some things like why Rita didn't have that fangirl reaction when it came to Zoro or why Zoro wouldn't know what highschool is I'll explain that right now!

The reason Rita didn't fangirl over Zoro is because she was in denial at the time and thought she had been dreaming this whole thing up. And since she had been interacting with him for a while she just merely lost her chance to geek out for now. I hope I made that up with the hug she gave.

And I figured no one in One piece knows what highschool is since they don't seem to have a school system established. however there are schools for specific things like the Dojo Zoro attended or homeschooling. That's my idea anyway.

So I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I can't wait to get out of the first couple of episodes! though I almost feel bad for Helmeppo because I know he'll turn out to be an okay guy later on... but he makes it so _easy! _Anyways bye, bye for now!


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